Wednesday, November 7, 2007

LOS ANGELES --Writers were back on the picket lines Wednesday after their strike forced at least eight prime-time shows, including the popular NBC sitcom "The Office," to halt production.

As the strike entered its third day, no new negotiations were scheduled on the main sticking point between writers and producers: payments from DVDs and shows offered on the Internet.

One of the largest rallies yet occurred outside the gates of the Disney studio in Burbank. About 60 people, including a number of powerful producer-writers known in the industry as "showrunners," joined the protest, despite that networks expected many of them to report to work as managers.

Among them was Greg Daniels, executive producer of the "The Office," who said filming stopped on the show after star Steve Carell refused to cross picket lines.

Alright, here's the deal with this writer's strike, in case you haven't heard. The writers want to get paid for, as the article said, stuff they wrote for D.V.D.s and the internet. However, the corporate big shots won't pay them for their work in the "new media", because, apparently, the corporations don't make any money from these new forms of entertainment. Sure. Hollywood, it's time to give the writers their due.